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Archive for November, 2014

There has been a long standing debate about whether undergoing anesthesia can trigger dementia (see article by Roni Jacobson in Scientific American, October, 2014). Despite large, well-publicized studies claiming there is no significant association between anesthesia and dementia, there are too many cases to dismiss the phenomenon as coincidence. The cases appear to be statistical outliers in that they are not the norm. However, that does not make them any less real just infrequent. What is widely accepted is that a portion of those who undergo general anesthesia experience what is called “postoperative cognitive decline.” This marked by lapses of memory and attention (mild to severe delirium) that lasts from a few hours to a few weeks before it clears. Most who experience anesthesia do not show these effects for more than a very brief time and do not go […]